Pikmin short movies

Screenshot from Treasure in a Bottle.

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The Pikmin short movies refer to short animated films, showing Pikmin interacting with the environment of PNF-404 alongside Captain Olimar. These films are drawn using computer generated 3D graphics. The shorts were produced by TK3 Inc. and Nintendo Co., Ltd, and were animated by Dynamo Pictures, Inc., with Shigeru Miyamoto as executive producer. The three shorts are called "The Night Juicer", "Treasure in a Bottle", and "Occupational Hazards".

#1 The Night Juicer

This short features Captain Olimar, and red, yellow, and blue Pikmin, inside an unknown room, with captain Olimar using a small blender to make a juice-like drink. The three Pikmin see this, and go to investigate, only to see what appears to be a cut of Pikmin on a cutting board. Olimars turns to the Pikmin, and they begin to back away in fear. The three Pikmin begin pushing each other towards Olimar, and Olimar slowly grabs for them. The Pikmin, trembling in fear, bump into a box of pik-pik carrots, sending the carrots flying. Olimar, however, grabbed a few carrots, smiles at the Pikmin, and returns to the blender, the Pikmin frozen in fear. "The Night Juicer" is one minute and fifty-five seconds long.

#2 Treasure in a Bottle

This short beings off with a red Pikmin chasing after a large white butterfly. After failing to capture the butterfly, the pikmin finds a large ramune bottle and sees the blue marble inside. Climbing a nearby plant, the red Pikmin attempts to jump inside, only fall. After a second attempt, the Pikmin manages to land inside the bottle's marble compartment. After a few attempts, the red Pikmin lodges the marble inside the mouth of the bottle, where it falls, causing the red Pikmin to jump into the lower compartment of the bottle, trapped. There, the red Pikmin calls for help from a nearby passing pair of a blue and a yellow Pikmin, which laugh at the red's plight. The trapped red also seeks helps from a fellow red Pikmin, who also laughs.

After assessing the situation the blue, the yellow, and the red all begin thinking about ideas on how to free their trapped buddy. The blue Pikmin gets an idea first, running off into the foliage, and returning with a bucket of water. It's idea is to fill the bottle with water and have the red swim out. The trapped red, however, refuses, believing it will drown. The second idea comes from the yellow, who runs off into the foliage, and returns with a lit bomb rock. The red and blue flee, while the yellow lays the explosive, and runs away itself. The bomb rock explodes, sending the trapped red Pikmin and the ramune bottle flying into the air, freeing the red. However, the bottle lands upright once again, and the red falls in, landing at the bottom. The free red, yellow, and blue, return to the bottle, seeing that the bomb rock did not work. However, they spot three blues hanging onto the white butterfly seen earlier, joined by a purple, which all fail to capture the butterfly. The Pikmin then gain an idea.

The red Pikmin awakens at the bottom of the bottle, to be greeted by a chain of Pikmin hanging inside hand in hand. They pull the red free, which the red is quite thankful for, but before the red Pikmin returns to the ground with the group, it looks back at the ramune bottle marble. The scene then changes, showing the red sitting atop of the ramune bottle, and it is being carried by multiple red, yellow and blue Pikmin, into the foliage, with the purple slowly running behind. The length of "Treasure in a Bottle" is eight minutes.

#3 Occupational Hazards

Length: 12:45

Bonus

A bonus was included with the shorts, two shorts exclusive to the 3DS version, and four available to both the 3DS and Wii U versions.

"TOHO CINEMAS 2012 Logo"

Length: 00:31

"TOHO CINEMAS 2013 Logo"

Length: 00:37

"Treasure in a Bottle: Storyboard by Shigeru Miyamoto"

Length: 01:23

"Occupational Hazards: Storyboard by Shigeru Miyamoto"

Length: 02:05

Easter eggs

At 00:24 in "The Night Juicer", numerous articles and photos are posted on a bulletin board.

Two photos feature Olimar's family, his wife, his son, and his daughter.
Another photo features the "Pikmin" game art from the first game.
Another photo features Olimar and the Hocotate ship from "Super Smash Bros. Brawl".
There is also a news article that features Hocotate from "Pikmin 2".

At 00:40 in "Treasure in a Bottle" shows a white butterfly throughout the short.
"Treasure in a Bottle" features a Nintendo ramune bottle.
At 02:54 in "Occupational Hazards", there is a green pipe which a red Pikmin pops out with lint portrayed similarly to Super Mario's hat, nose, and mustache. Numerous coins from the Super Mario Bros., as well as a short excerpt from "Super Mario Bros. Overworld Theme".
The entire worth of the crane in "Occupational Hazards" in Pokos is 10,000,000,000,000,007, or ten quadrillion and seven pokos.
In "Occupational Hazard", there is a scene where a red and blue Pikmin are running beside each other in an attempt to evade a rampaging Bulborb. During this scene, a police siren can be heard, referencing how police lights are generally red and blue.
At 09:20 in "Occupational Hazards", there is a remixed variation of the theme of the Final Trial.

History

In an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in March of 2013, the creator of the Pikmin series announced Nintendo was working on a cartoon based on the franchise. In the interview, Miyamoto revealed that these cartoons would be released at some point in 2013 but before the next game in the series, Pikmin 3, which was still in development. The idea was to distribute them as Nintendo 3DS videos, and he considered the idea of selling them if they become something bigger.

The idea for these cartoons came around when Miyamoto was trying to "give more life to the Pikmin characters". When asked if this was an attempt to make the 3DS less of a gaming-centric console, Miyamoto declared he hadn't thought about it that way. Instead, it's just taking advantage of the Pikmin series, and expanding its potential. If the idea flourishes, Nintendo might do cartoons on other franchises as well.

In September of 2014, Miyamoto announced that three short animated movies would be shown at the Tokyo International film festival, which will happen from October 25 to 31. These short movies will be titled The Night Juicer, Treasures in a Bottle, and Occupational Hazards.

On the 25^th of October 2014, the movies were premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival. They will be making their way into the 3DS eShop at a later date. According to IGN, Miyamoto has completed 20-30 short films, yet has only left the three movies listed above for public viewing.^[1]

Post-premiere interview

After the shorts were presented, Shigeru Miyamoto and Dwango chairman Nobuo Kawakami held a press conference, and revealed more info on the shorts. The following list of tidbits has been gathered:^[2]

The three Pikmin shorts ("The Night Juicer", "Treasures in a Bottle", "Occupational Hazards") are coming soon to 3DS.
They’d considered doing something like this for Nintendo’s characters many times in the past, but avoided it because of the difference between an interactive game and a film.
Another reason is that a film requires much more ‘setting in stone’ about the characters and world that could be limiting for the company when it comes to future games.
However, with Pikmin they’re very small inside the game and you can’t see them well without zooming in close. So he thought shorts might be a good fit for the Pikmin series as it’d allow there to be more focus on the actual Pikmin.
Storyboards for the shorts were made by Miyamoto using Flipnote Studio 3D, an app never relased in the West.
Made by an external CGI company. They also produced the opening of the 2012 E3 Presentation, where Miyamoto was followed by CGI Pikmin.
They originally intended to make ten 3-minute short films, but after making the first one they decided on making longer ones. The 2nd is 8 minutes and the 3rd is 13 minutes long.
The 3rd film features 500 Pikmin on screen at once and Pikmin covered in mud, which are things they can’t do in-game.
The models used are based on the game’s models, but as the CGI required about 10 times the fidelity of that in the latest game, so the 3D models in the shorts themselves are mostly new.
Miyamoto says the live-action Super Mario Brothers film was an interesting interpretation of the universe. When he first read the script, it was a heart-warming tale, like a Disney movie from his childhood, but it gradually evolved into the movie we know today. He thinks it’s interesting what a different interpretation can bring.
Release timing for the Pikmin shorts unannounced; may be compiled together with the logo-movie for Toho Cinemas (which also features Pikmin) when released on 3DS.
Plans on releasing world-wide; no language to localize.
Pikmin 3 demo is in the works.
Miyamoto wants the short films to be a gateway for some to play the Pikmin games.

Nintendo Direct

On November 5^th, 2014, Nintendo released the Pikmin shorts, for both 3DS and Wii U. The 3DS version featured 3D elements to it, while the Wii U version is in HD. The full bundle costs $4.99/£4.49/€4.99.

References

External links

[1] IGN's article

[2] My Nintendo News' article

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